I have yet another piece up at Hilobrow about the Surrealist photographer Claude Cahun, a woman whose life I think had a big influence on V for Vendetta.

Should be of interest to comic fans, photographers, folks interested in questions of gender construction and identity. So...people around here.

Please "like" if you like it. It helps.

Grateful update: Niki came through her knee reconstruction fine. She is being evaluated for how soon she can be moved to a rehab facility.

Many, many thanks for the good thoughts.

Thanks for the health~ma. That was for K-Bug and test results are basically ok...just need to keep an eye on things. Best response possible at the moment. Worried mama-bear is trying to dial back the worry.

Nothing ~ma if you can spare it please.

My mom, Louise B. D. passed away at 1:16 this afternoon with family around her. She had a great life, and brought eight children into this world including me. I'll miss her more than I can even put into words. And I hope that her beliefs are true because she'll be with Dad again.

No -ma is needed. This is the outcome she wanted.

Do we know anyone in Hawaii or with fam there? My good friend is there on vaca and it's 10:10 pm Hawaii time as of this posting and she is freaking about the tsunami alert.

Any info from natives about local conditions or how serious this REALLY is would be appreciated, if anyone's up for the next hour or so.

Email addy or my Facebook is good. Thanks in advance if anyone has info.

Much love to my Buffitas, whom I can call on in situations like this. XOXO.

MWAH!

So I could use some financial ~ma. I applied today for a loan which may allow me to finally consolidate my bad debt and get on track to be debt free in (hopefully less than!) five years without destroying my credit...this process is through a large bank and is going to take up to THREE MONTHS to go through, so apologies in advance for my prolonged fretting. But it would finally allow me to escape the evil clutches of the credit card companies, and even thinking about that brings me to the edge of tears. Until this week, I thought this option was off the table, and now it looks like it may work out. So. Thanks.

I've been busy at Hilobrow lately, and have yet another bio up, this time about the legendary Hong Kong actress Brigitte Lin.

She was in more than a 100 films between her careers in Taiwan and Hong Kong, and retired at the peak of her popularity as she became known for playing powerful, androgynous, dangerous, sometimes evil characters. Sort of like Tilda Swinton as a very sexy superhero. As Glamcookie will vouch - she's the coolest.

Check it out! And if you could Like it there, I'd like it because it makes my publishers' advertisers happy.

Hey all - I'm hosting an open google+ hangout for the duration of the election today. If you didn't get an invite from me, it's because we're not linked on google+...so if you'd like to drop by at some point for snark or commiseration or whatever, try this link or friend me on g+ [link]

Thanks for all the posts of support. The funeral on Monday was quite lovely, and didn't take as much out of me as expected. Oddly it was the two viewings the day before that drained me the most.

So far behind here. Haven't been able to remotely keep up on any of the threads.